[n. of action f. L. crepitāre: see prec. and -ATION. So F. crépitation (Paré 16th c.).]
1. A crackling noise; crackling.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Crepitation,… a creaking, crashing, or ratling noise.
1676. Grew, Luctation, i. § 6 in Anat. Plants, i. (1682), 239. Crepitation, when they make a kind of hissing and sometimes a crackling noise.
1711. J. Greenwood, Eng. Gram., 193. Spatter … implies a more clear crepitation or crackling.
1864. R. F. Burton, Dahome, II. 329. Rattling, crackling thunder, with prolonged electric crepitations.
1879. G. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 127. We hear a dry noise, a crepitation similar to that of the spark.
fig. 1805. Southey, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor, II. 7. The Anti-jacobin crepitations never reach me.
2. Med. and Path. The slight sound and accompanying sensation caused by pressure on any portion of cellular tissue in which air is collected, or by the entrance of air into the lungs in a certain stage of inflammation; also, the noise and sensation observed in the grating together of the ends of fractured bones; the crackling noise sometimes observed in gangrenous parts when examined with the fingers; the cracking of a joint when pulled. (Syd. Soc. Lex.)
1834. J. Forbes, Laennec’s Dis. Chest, 11. Sometimes in cases of emphysema of the lungs … a species of dry crepitation is felt by the hand.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 157/1. His right leg presented all the signs of fracture of the fibula … such as … depression and crepitation above the outer ankle.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 47. When suppuration or sloughing of the cellular tissue has taken place, fluctuation or crepitation will be detected, or the parts feel boggy.
3. The action of rattling: see CREPITATE 4.
1878. Coues, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv., IV. 263. The rattle of the Crotalus cannot be distinguished from the crepitation of the large Western grasshopper.
4. The breaking of wind; crepitus ventris. rare.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XII. 599. Openly venting their crepitations and eructations at table.
